Tkinter Separator

Summary: in this tutorial, you’ll learn how to use the Tkinter Separator widget to display a thin horizontal or vertical rule between groups of widgets.

Introduction to the Tkinter Separator widget #

A Separator widget places a thin horizontal or vertical rule between two groups of widgets.

To create a separator widget, you follow these steps:

First, import tkinter as ttk:

from tkinter import ttkCode language: Python (python)

Second, create a separator using the Separator constructor:

sep = ttk.Separator(master=None, orient=tk.HORIZONTAL)Code language: Python (python)

The Separator constructor accepts two main parameters:

• master is the container widget where you want to place the Separator .
• orient determines the orientation of the separator. It can can be either tk.VERTICAL or tk.HORIZONTAL.

Horizontal separator #

The following program illustrates how to use a Separator widget to separate two frames:

import tkinter as tk
from tkinter import ttk

root = tk.Tk()
root.geometry('300x200')
root.title('Separator Widget Demo')

# top frame
top_frame = tk.Frame(root)
top_frame.pack(side=tk.TOP, fill=tk.BOTH, expand=True)
ttk.Label(top_frame, text="Top frame").pack(pady=20)

# create a horizontal separator
separator = ttk.Separator(root, orient=tk.HORIZONTAL)
separator.pack(side=tk.TOP, fill=tk.X, pady=5)

# bottom frame
bottom_frame = tk.Frame(root)
bottom_frame.pack(side=tk.BOTTOM, fill=tk.BOTH, expand=True)
ttk.Label(bottom_frame, text="Bottom frame").pack(pady=20)

root.mainloop()Code language: Python (python)

Output:

How it works:

First, create a horizontal Separator widget by passing the tk.HORIZONTAL to the Separator constructor:

separator = ttk.Separator(root, orient=tk.HORIZONTAL)Code language: Python (python)

Second, pack the Separator on the main window:

separator.pack(side=tk.TOP, fill=tk.X, pady=5)Code language: Python (python)

We set the fill to tk.X to expand the separator horizontally. If you don’t do this, you won’t see the Separator widget.

Vertical Separator #

The following program shows how to create a veritcal Separator widget:

import tkinter as tk
from tkinter import ttk

root = tk.Tk()
root.geometry('300x200')
root.title('Separator Widget Demo')

# left frame
left_frame = tk.Frame(root)
left_frame.pack(side=tk.LEFT, fill=tk.BOTH, expand=True)
ttk.Label(left_frame, text="Left frame").pack(pady=20)

# right frame
right_frame = tk.Frame(root)
right_frame.pack(side=tk.RIGHT, fill=tk.BOTH, expand=True)
ttk.Label(right_frame, text="Right frame").pack(pady=20)

# create a vertical separator
separator = ttk.Separator(root, orient=tk.HORIZONTAL)
separator.pack(side=tk.LEFT, fill=tk.Y, padx=5)


root.mainloop()Code language: Python (python)

Output:

How it works:

First, create a vertical Separator widget by passing the tk.HORIZONTALto the Separator constructor:

separator = ttk.Separator(root, orient=tk.HORIZONTAL)Code language: Python (python)

Second, pack the Separator on the main window:

separator.pack(side=tk.LEFT, fill=tk.Y, padx=5)Code language: Python (python)

In this example, we set the fill to tk.X to expand the separator horizontally.

Summary #

• Use a separator widget to place a thin horizontal or vertical rule between two groups of widgets.